An outsider might be forgiven for mistaking the city of Andover as free of danger.
Boasting a population of about 30,000 residents, the small, affluent enclave about an hour outside of Boston is home to one of the most famous prep schools in the country.
“It’s a very well-run town and a safe town. Not a crowded community, and there is zero hostility here,” State Sen. Barry Finegold, who has held the post since 2010, told The Daily Beast. “It’s the kind of tight-knit classic New England town that doesn’t have a lot of crime, and has a quaint downtown where people stop to chat with one another.”
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So in Dec. 2011, when John “Jack” Magee and his wife, Geraldine “Jeri” Magee, were found murdered on the first floor of their two-acre estate, the community was shocked.
That the gruesome murder likely took place around the time the family’s luxury SUV caught fire in Boston’s North End quickly sparked a frenzy of speculation about some kind of targeted killing that continues to this day.
“That kind of thing does not happen in Andover,” one neighbor who spoke under the condition of anonymity told The Daily Beast. “And the Magees were so kind—nobody had a bad word to say about them.”
Over the past decade, authorities have struggled to figure out who would want to kill the 69-year-old construction company owner and 67-year-old community leader. Only the second homicide in Andover in the last 30 years, the Magees’ case invited scrutiny from local and state authorities. But in the 10 years since the crime took place, on Dec. 14, 2011, no one has been charged or even named a person of interest in connection with it.
“It’s on the top of the list for sure as one of the weirdest mysteries to come out of Andover. It was one of those head-scratchers people still can’t get their minds around,” Finegold added. “The Magees were a normal, very all-American family. And then one day they were brutally murdered, and nobody knows why.”
Spokespeople for the Andover Police Department and the Essex County District Attorney’s office, the agencies leading the investigation, told The Daily Beast that the case was still active and ongoing. Because of that, they declined to go into details about murders that remain a topic of intense conversation within the Andover community.
The unanswered questions surrounding the case have also prompted the Magees’ two adult children—including their daughter, who found them the day of their deaths—to turn to the public for assistance.
“It’s been… 10 years since the tragic deaths of Jack and Jeri Magee. Our family has lost 10 years of love, smiles, wisdom, support, and happiness with them. For the past decade, we have hoped and prayed for answers and closure to this horrible crime,” John Magee and Holly Senykoff wrote in a statement to The Daily Beast. They declined to be interviewed for this story.
“We ask that anyone who has any knowledge of what happened to Jack and Jeri immediately come forward to the Andover Police Department. Please help us solve this crime.”
According to Finegold, the Magee family was “well-respected and well-loved” in Andover.
The couple, who met as teenagers at Arlington High School and married soon after, lived in a million-dollar home on Orchard Street, and had a second home on the Florida coast. Palm Beach county property records indicate that the Magees bought their home in the affluent Jonathan’s Landing community near Jupiter, Florida, in 2003.
Jack Magee owned and operated Magee Construction, which was founded in 1951 by his father and specialized in “building single-family homes,” Andover Police Chief Patrick Keefe said in a statement.
The father-of-two took over the company in 1974 after completing his business degree at Boston University and earning a law degree at the New England School of law. At the time of his death, the patriarch was operating the business with his adult son, who shares his first name. Keefe added that Magee “was a fair and honest businessman who paid his subcontractors on time and treated the people who worked for him and with him well.”
“Jack was a local developer that built a large part of Andover,” Finegold, the local lawmaker, told The Daily Beast. “He was a well-liked guy, a hard worker. I never heard anything negative about the Magees.”
Geraldine, who was affectionately referred to as “Jeri,” is described by authorities and family as a “devoted grandmother” and member of St. Theresa’s Church in the next town over. Prior to their murder, according to a 2011 Boston Globe article, the couple had returned from a cruise that took them from Turkey to the Greek isles.
“She volunteered for various organizations including the Bread and Roses Community Pantry in Lawrence,” Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said in a statement. “She especially enjoyed traveling, and had visited six continents and close to 40 countries.”
Authorities say that on the day before the couple’s murders, Jack visited one of the company’s construction sites on Sailor Tom’s Way in Reading—a town about 20 minutes away from Andover. While at the site, he called his son “about picking up building materials in Boston to bring back to the site the next day,” Blodgett said.
“A long-time employee of Magee Construction was there and assisted Jack in cleaning out his Chevy pick-up truck so that John [the son] could use the truck to pick up the materials,” the district attorney added, before noting Jack left the building site around 3 p.m.
Around the same time, the couple’s daughter, Holly Senykoff, spoke with her mother about her plans to drop off her two children so she could complete some last-minute Christmas shopping. Authorities say Senykoff believed her father was already home by the time she talked with her mother at 4:24 p.m., because she heard him “talking in the background.”
The details of what occurred the night of Dec. 13 remain a mystery. But authorities say that the Magees’ black Lexus SUV was found on fire about an hour outside Andover. The Boston Fire Department told local news outlets at the time that the car fire on Prince Street in the North End was discovered around 10:20 p.m, and took about half an hour to contain.
The next morning, at around 9:19 a.m., Senykoff called the Andover Police after discovering her parents on the first floor of their 9,877-square-foot home. The Magees’ two grandchildren, aged 8 and 4, were reportedly present when Senykoff discovered the bodies.
“They are lying on the ground with blood coming out,” the 911 dispatcher wrote in his notes during the call with Senykoff, according to the Eagle Tribune. “She believes they are beyond any help. Detectives and TIPS (Trauma Intervention Program) responding.”
The state medical examiner’s office later concluded that the couple both died from gunshot wounds. Jack Magee died from wounds sustained to the chest, head, and neck, while Geraldine was fatally shot in the head, the paper reported.
Despite the grisly murder, former Andover Police Chief Brain Pattullo was quick to stress that the incident was an isolated act and that “there is no further threat to the Andover community.” Police also said there were no obvious signs of forced entry into the large home—but declined to state whether there was evidence of a struggle or robbery.
“It’s shocking to see this would happen here, especially in Andover, where everything is so community-oriented,” Carlos Martinez, a 34-year-old who lived in an adjacent neighborhood, told the Boston Globe the day after the murders. “It’s always been a safe place, and it scares me that it could happen here.”
Finegold told The Daily Beast that shock about the murders has endured in the community and prompted “hearsay stories about what happened to the Magees.” Authorities, however, have remained tight-lipped about the investigation that has included dozens of interviews with friends, family, and business associates, a complete analysis of the Magees’ financial records and electronics, and a search of both of the family’s homes.
In 2015, investigators provided the community with an update into their ongoing probe, refusing to comment on any theories but insisting they had reviewed “countless hours” of surveillance video and followed leads to at least four states and 20 Massachusetts communities.
“The Andover Police Department remains committed to finding the person or persons responsible for taking the lives of John and Geraldine Magee,” Andover Police Chief Patrick Keefe added in 2018. “We are asking people to search their memories and consciences and come forward with any information that they may have.”
For Finegold, the inability of local authorities to figure out who murdered the Magees serves as an indicator that “it must have been done by a professional.”
“They were able to get in and out of that house and nobody really saw anything,” the state senator said. “It wasn’t a drive-by random shooting. It was someone that came from outside the community to do this, and they knew who their target was. We have an excellent police force, but I think whoever committed this crime is just a bit better.”
“It’s surprising that we are still trying to figure out what happened 10 years later. Nobody really knows what happened, and nobody has really talked. It’s definitely one of the biggest mysteries to come out of Andover,” he added.
But for the Magees’ children, a decade without answers has been painful—and their desire for answers is unabating.
“Jack and Jeri will live forever in our hearts and memories,” the two added in their statement. “But the people who committed this act are still at large, and they need to be brought to justice.”
